Life Isn't Fair
by Storm Caleum
Summary: Zack was always the best, the golden boy, the one everyone loved. He was sociable, good looking and stupidly cute. No one was surprised when the puppy made SOLDIER. The only one that could see through him is his sister, Jade Fair. She was the opposite. She was average looking, not sociable and was always in second place. Follow her as she goes on an adventure of self discovery
1. Mako, worms, and Zack Fair

**Chapter 1- Mako, worms, and Zack Fair**

* * *

"Morning Mom, Dad."

"Morning Jade." They replied.

Their daughter, Jade, covered her mouth as a yawn escaped her. Sluggishly, her pale hand grasped the door of the fridge and yanked it open, revealing some whole wheat bread and eggs. The brunette opened the bag of bread, fried an egg and began to eat tiredly. It wasn't a tasty breakfast but food was food.

Lazily, her brown eyes drifted over to the newspaper grasped in her father's hands. She was never big on newspapers. It was a waste of taxpayer money; everything could be found on the internet. She followed the grey oversized paper as her father flipped to the next page.

A few seconds passed before she went back to her breakfast. A few more passed when her father exclaimed, "Well would you look at that," Jade raised a brown eyebrow questioningly but didn't voice her thoughts. Her mother did it for her.

"Look at what dear?"

He just folded the newspaper in half and thrust it in front of him. His calloused finger pointed to a picture and the headline.

**Zackary Fair Promoted to SOLDIER 2****nd**** Class**

_Growing up in a backwater town is difficult. Growing up in a backwater town, joining SOLDIER, and having enough talent to get the first class SOLDIER Angeal Hewley to become his mentor, is outstanding. Zackary Fair is a remarkable young man. Within a year of joining, he went from infantryman to SOLDIER second class; a truly remarkable feat indeed. Shinra is putting the future in good hands._

"Our boy is growing up fast. I knew SOLDIER would be good for him." Jade's eyes narrowed when they landed upon her mother. That woman didn't know the half of it.

"That's exactly what I said. I only wish we had another child exactly like him." Even though he didn't say it, Jade knew he was silently implying something. Her parents were never impressed by anything she did but when Zack did something even remotely good, they'd praise him like he was a god.

The brunette made a barely audible 'tsk' sound before she picked up the slice of half-finished toast. "I'm going to school. I'll see you later." She grabbed her backpack that was filled to the brim with textbooks, binders and a compact touch screen laptop and stepped out of the stuffy house.

As soon as she was outside, a gust of wind picked up. The different smells of Gongaga wafted under her nostrils. It was earthy with no mako scent.

"Odd," Jade said out loud as her black running shoes made contact with the dusty earth. With each step, a cloud of dirt rolled over her feet, coating her black sneakers with a layer of red dirt. Ever since the reactor burned out and raw mako leaked into the soil, nothing was ever the same.

Nothing grew in the small town. Barely any residents lived there. The ones who did were fools who survived the death of the reactor and stubbornly, continued to rebuild their lives. The total population of the town was 30,000; a dangerously small amount of people. They were 'old school' as in; they still hold dear the beliefs of their ancestors. One would joke that Gongaga was a large cult.

The new generation however, was lost. They were caught between the practices of the old and the ideals of the new. The 'new' being Midgar with more job opportunities and freedom.

Because of this power struggle of old and new, many children and teenagers turned to substance abuse as a way to cope. Some even committed suicide; they didn't want to live in a world where their parents push them to becoming what their ancestors were. Many of these children and teens had to choose between their parents, their future or death. Many chose the last one.

The ones who got caught in the crossfire of beliefs, unsure of what to do, turned to substance abuse. Normally, it was alcohol and smoking but now increasingly, people turned to mako as a way to solve their problems. These were usually the rich kids or regular kids that couldn't kick the habit.

Liquid mako was a fluorescent green liquid with small, coagulated bits of solid crystals in the mix. When injected into the blood stream, it takes seconds to kick in. The user would feel all of their senses heighten. They would temporarily become stronger and match a 3rd class SOLDIER in battle. It was the most common form of mako and it was easily collectable, at least for Jade.

The teen walked to the outskirts of town where a fork in the road separated mainland Gongaga and the mako reactor. Her bag wasn't really filled with textbooks and binders but the laptop was in there, along with some supplies to harvest the liquid mako and 'purify' it.

But before the collecting could happen, she needed an injection herself. The brunette reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a small syringe full of mako. Quickly, the needle sunk into her skin and the fluorescent liquid was gone, pumped into her veins.

Jade put the container back into her pocket as the effects of the drug started to warp her mind. Slowly but surely, her eyesight went to 40/20, as sharp as the eyes of an eagle. Her ears were able to detect even the faintest scurrying noises of a mouse. Her nose was able to sniff out the scent of different humans within a two mile radius.

The teen knew all sorts of monsters thrived near the reactor. She had to be on guard. It wouldn't be that hard due to her temporarily enhanced senses. A pale hand removed the spectacles on her face and pushed them into her jacket pocket; she wouldn't need them. For the moment at least.

After a five minute hike, Jade finally found what she was looking for; the burned out mako reactor. A smirk spread across her heart shaped face. Her feet dug into the red dirt like it was jelly and made depressions around two inches deep as she ran into the reactor. The power of mako was magnificent, even if it did last for a short while.

The reactor, when burned out, split in two. An entrance formed where the metal shells cracked. Deep beneath the planet's surface laid the drill that was used to suck mako out of the lifestream. That was where Jade's profits lay.

The young woman stood on top of the metal shell. Her mako induced blue eyes stared deep into the crevice. With her enhanced eyesight, she could see it; the liquid mako at the bottom. Without even the slightest hesitation, the young girl dove headfirst into the old reactor.

That was a mistake. Not only did she land on her hands, she had managed to gain a variety of cuts and obtain a sprained wrist. She gritted her teeth as she dipped the sprained hand down into the lake of pure mako. A tingly feeling washed over the limb, as if the energy from the lake was trying to burrow into her pores.

When the feeling stopped, her hand was as good as new. No bloodied cuts or a sprained wrist. It was as if nothing happened.

Jade set her backpack down and pulled out her laptop, pipette and some test tubes with caps. While the digital device was booting up, the teen loaded her test tubes to the brim with liquid mako and stuffed them back into her backpack.

A small 'ding' echoed through the reactor, signifying her laptop was ready to be used. Her fingers furiously typed away and her mako blue eyes scanned at the coding of each program. She worked the laptop for fifteen minutes before a triumphant grin spread across her face and the laptop snapped shut. There, her school grades had all been changed to an 85% and her attendance was wiped clean of any misses. She would just look like a regular student to anyone who checked the records.

A scurrying noise snapped her out of her cocky trance. The girl looked around frantically. No one should know she was here. The noise gradually grew louder and louder. The scraping of claws against the cold metal, the barely audible hum of wings beating rapidly reached her ears.

Before Jade could react, something slammed into her back. The buzzing was right by her ear along with the clicking of pincers. The smell of rotten flesh assaulted her sensitive nose and instantly, she recognized the creature; a Kimara Bug.

Her gloved hands reached behind her head and grasped two insect legs. The brunette knew what these things were capable of. Her uncle died at the hands of the oversized bug. "Get off!" In a desperate attempt to dislodge the monster, Jade jumped and rolled forwards so all her weight would be used to crush, or at least damage, the bug.

A sickening squish, coupled with the last breaths of the insect, fell upon her ears. The teen stood shakily and glanced at the carcass before packing up her 'stuff'. A monster had already attacked her. Who knows how many more there might be?

Her mako enhanced muscles pulled her body out of the reactor with ease. Glowing blue eyes scanned the surrounding area, making sure there were no trespassers. Once the coast was clear, Jade made a beeline for her home, slamming the door shut once she got in and running up to her room. Mother and father were out work.

Heavy pants escaped the teen. She had just sprinted several kilometers and the mako that was pumping through her system had almost been burned out. It was just a matter of waiting until she looked 'normal' again.

"T-the mako… I-is it safe?" She stuttered and numbly walked over to her bag. When the mako in a person's system starts to burn out, they begin to experience side effects. The effects aren't normally too severe ranging from mild headaches to vomiting, to having an out of body/ distorted experience.

Shaky fingers unzipped the bag and dilated pupils saw the tubes of mako were… perfectly fine.

Jade breathed out a sigh of relief before hiding the bag under her bed and stumbling over to the bathroom. A nice hot shower would help burn out the mako residue in her system.

Stripping herself of her blood, sweat and mako-active insect guts clothes, she carelessly tossed them into the hamper and basked under the showerhead. Hot water beat against her pale skin, turning it a pinky hue.

Waves upon waves of nausea washed over her until she felt the clenching of her stomach. The brunette fell onto all fours as acid traveled up her esophagus and reached the back of her throat.

Jade hadn't the time to get out of the shower and to a toilet. Instead, her back arched and, with a final lurch, she vomited. The acid and undigested food flew out of her mouth like a waterfall. Bits and pieces of what looked like toast floated around her before going down the drain.

Tiny bits of crystalized mako clung to the shower wall stubbornly, not wanting to go down the drain. It was disgusting. The washroom smelled like vomit and death. Jade knew she had to get rid of it and soon. Her parents would be home at 8:00PM.

The young girl pushed herself onto her feet. The mako had been cleared from her system by vomiting however, the little concentrated mako crystals were something to worry about. That had never happened before.

A dry heave went through her body as she coughed violently. Like a cat hacking up a hairball, Jade hacked up a spherical mako crystal the size of a marble. "Fuck."

She shut off the showerhead and watched as the vomit and bits of mako swirled down the drain. Quickly drying off and hiding the marble sized bit of mako in her pocket, Jade stepped out of the shower feeling better than she had been in a long time.

While toweling off her hair, her phone buzzed.

"Hello?"

"Regular place ASAP." The line went dead.

Jade stared at the device in her hands before redressing. Small hands grabbed the bag of mako and she fled out the door. It was one of her clients whom regularly bought 'liquid earth' from her. They needed another dose.

The brunette saw her client at their regular spot; the park. No one ever came to the park anymore due to the increase of mako enhanced monsters in the area. It had to be a quick in and out procedure. Gil for mako.

"Do you have it?"

"Yes, regular amount?"

"Yeah," The exchange was quick. A couple thousand gil for a few vials of mako and they were done; gone their own separate ways until next time. Jade knew it wouldn't' be long before he'd come crawling back. Her clients always did. They were completely dependent on mako and needed refills every two weeks.

The dealer was back in her home in less than twenty minutes. The gil in her pocket was heavy. She would need to hide that from her parents and where better to hide it than in her stuffed animals? Quickly ripping the Velcro clasp that held the two flaps of fluffy cloth together, the brunette stuffed the wads of gil into the money filled animal before pulling out her laptop.

Her thick glasses rested on the brim of her rounded nose, the lenses reflecting the light of the screen as she typed in her password. Jade was never good in social situations, nor did she excel in the sports but she had an uncanny ability to manipulate any sort of technology she touched. In other words, she was an elite hacker, a black hat and cybermanic.

Jade had been working on a long and difficult personal project; hack into Shinra databases and change Zack's information. It had been over two months now and she made a lot of progress.

Upon looking at a family picture, she knew it wasn't fair. He had gotten everything; everything she'd ever wanted. Zack never had to work a day in his life. His 'good looks' and 'impeccable social skills' did everything for him. Heck, even when she had brought home all A's, and he'd brought home all D's, their parents always coddled him; told him how proud they were.

No matter what Jade did, she was always behind Zack. She was always the second, the flaw, the imperfection. Well no more. She wanted Zack to feel what real dedication and determination was like. She was going to make his life as difficult as possible.

So far, Jade had broken through three of Shinra's firewalls, an impressive feat for anyone less than a Turk. The fourth one however, it was unbreakable. She'd tried everything from Rootkit programs to Keystroke logging but nothing worked.

Jade chewed on her bottom lip as her brown eyes scanned the lines upon lines of code. Her fingers worked furiously; typing away, trying to crack the code. Earlier, she had implanted a worm in the Shinra system via email sent to a very specific employee. He was a red headed Turk who was known to be a womanizer. What better way to lure out the fiery haired Turk than with a big fat email labeled, 'Nude Pics of Cristain Iswart?'

The youngest Fair was sure the womanizer Turk would fall for it. Sure enough, he did. She watched as the worm tunneled deep into Shinra files and their databases. All she had to do was wait until the worm entered the SOLDIER data bases. Then, screwing up Zack's life would be as easy as taking candy from a baby.

It would take some time for the worm to reach it's destination. She had time to kill. Just as she opened Google Chrome, her phone buzzed. Pale hands typed in the password and read the text message from a new number. They wanted a large amount of mako.

Quickly cross referencing the number, Jade made sure it wasn't from any Shinra employees before responding. They would meet up at the Gongaga mini mall; a public place. There was no use getting killed over mako dealings.

Jade brought a few vials of mako on her person before stuffing her bag with empty syringes that would impersonate the mako vials and went out the door.

The mall was in the center of town, a mere fifteen minute walk from Jade's home. Once she arrived, her phone buzzed again, the text message telling her to head over to the benches by the frozen yogurt stand.

A man was waiting there when she arrived. Her eyes narrowed. He looked to be around his mid-twenties, not bad looking. Brown tufts of hair stood up in all directions, complementing his face quite nicely. Based on the clothes he wore, Jade would estimate he was a wealthy middle class man. She'd be able to milk roughly ten thousand gill from him.

"How many did you need?" Jade smiled and sat down beside the man. From passerby views, they looked like old friends reconnecting.

He caught on fast. "Your entire stock." His teeth were shown as he smiled. They were ridiculously white, almost blinding.

"Of course, but it is going to cost you." The brunette continued her façade of the happy little girl.

Her client smiled; one that didn't quite reach his eyes before he reached into his pocket. Jade's eyes widened as she saw the wads of a thousand gil bills. Holy crap! This guy was loaded. "I have plenty more where this came from. I want your entire stock." It took a while for her to recover from her shock.

"Of course. When do you need it by?"

"Tonight."

That was going to be difficult but not undoable. "Sure. Meet me at the main park at," She glanced at her phone. "7:00PM." Her parents wouldn't be home until eight.

The man nodded before stuffing the gil back into his pockets and walking away. Jade copied his actions. She was giddy during the walk home. In that wad alone, there was at least 100,000 gil! That was enough to buy a motorcycle!

Jade couldn't wait to get her hands on all that gil. After stuffing her bag full of mako vials, she headed out to the park. It was 6:45PM. She was still early. The girl sat under a tree, waiting for the man to arrive and make the exchange.

"Did you bring it?" A voice startled the girl out of her thoughts. She whipped her head around to see the man from earlier on the other side of the tree. When did he arrive?

The brunette cleared her throat and unzipped her bag, showing him the vials upon vials of liquid mako. "This is all I have at the moment; 26 vials." The male with the spikey hair nodded and took out a bag full of thousand gil bills.

"1,000,000 gil." The exchange went smoothly and Jade had a skip in her step as she entered her house. A million gil… that was enough to buy a house; no, a mansion!

As soon as Jade shut the door, she saw her parents on the sofa, looking at her with disapproval and disappointment on their faces.

"Jade Fair… where were you?" Her father pushed his glasses to the bridge of his nose as he halfheartedly glared at his daughter.

"Sorry dad, I had to stay a bit afterschool to work on my extracurricular project." Her outdoor shoes quickly came off as she walked towards her family and flopped down on the comfortable sofa with a thump.

"I was researching the effects of mitosis and what happens when it stops prematurely or stops mid- life. Agent Orange was a drug used in chemical warfare that caused pregnant women who drank the contaminated water to have defects in their children. Their babies were born without eyes and deformed limbs." Jade was lying through her teeth. She just needed her parents to believe it. Being a biology and technology nerd, it wasn't difficult. Just use big, scientific words they don't understand.

"Anyways, that's premature mitosis. Mature mitosis happens when the cells don't multiply and therefore, don't heal the body. My hypothesis is that during metaphase, chromosomes and chromatids fail to separate. Mature mitosis is genetic and the 'mutation' should be on one of the four nucleotides: thymine, adenine, guanine and cytosine-"

"-Okay, just go and continue to research the subject." Her father waved her off, too annoyed and confused to deal with his daughter's biology ranting. A small smirk spread across the girl's face as she grabbed her bag full of cash and headed to her room.

Jade stuffed all the gil into her money filled animals and checked her laptop. Bingo. The worm had finally found the SOLDIER databases. Today was a good day.

Her slender fingers altered small amounts of Zack's info. It was mostly age, middle name and social security number. If her predictions were correct, Zack would have 'lied' about his information and would have to go through a bunch of legal procedures. He would be suspended from SOLDIER for a certain amount of time to fix all of the altered information.

A click to the 'Enter' key and all was completed. Her brother's information was updated. Let's see how long it would take for him to get suspended.

Jade surfed the web for a while, monitoring her worm on the side to make sure it didn't get detected before she logged off. She still needed more information on her brother and what better way to do that then to send an undetectable worm into the system?

A content smile spread across the sixteen year old's face as she charged her laptop and flopped down on her soft, comfortable bed. She couldn't wait for everything that is to come; more money from her mysterious new client, Zack's suspension and her parent's semi approval. Ah yes, today was a truly good day.

Jade changed from her day clothes into her Pj's and climbed under the covers. She took off her thick rimmed glasses and set them on her night side table before turning off the lights.

The only source of illumination throughout the room was the moon light shining through a small sliver in the curtains. The moonlight danced on the floor for a few moments before clouds covered it. The sky darkened and the telltale rumble of thunder rolled over the town of Gongaga.

Heavy rain droplets fell from the heavens above. A storm had arrived.

* * *

**Well, it has been a while since I updated. Lets hope this story will be better than Brother, Father, Mentor, Lover. What do you guys think of the story so far? It will start getting interesting in the next chapter or the third chapter.**

**Storm Caleum **


	2. Signature

**Chapter 2- Signature**

* * *

"…You've got to be kidding me." Jade sighed and allowed the curtain to fall back into place. Yesterday's storm did quite a number on the town. Many homes and streets were flooded, making transportation by foot or car impossible. Even if one did try to go outside, they would just get stuck in the knee deep muddy water. It made mako collecting impossible.

The teen flopped down on her bed and stared blankly at the ceiling. Her 'new' client had texted her. He wanted more mako ASAP. The quicker she got it, the higher her pay would be.

Her eyes glanced over to her money stuffed bear. At this point, she had enough gil to never work again but the thought of another million gil was far too tempting. The brunette's eyes glowed with greed. With one last look at her bear, Jade hopped off the bed, threw on some day clothes, grabbed her backpack and ran out the door.

Even while wearing rain boots; it was a pain in the ass to waddle through muddy waters to reach her destination. Water spilled into the boots, soaking through her white socks and staining them a coffee brown.

'This is for a million gill.' She kept reminding herself as she trudged through the town and into the forest where the reactor laid. With every step, it seemed like the ground was trying to pull her down. Mud, grass and other vegetation attached themselves to the soles of her boots, making it increasingly difficult to move.

'I'll get more money if I go faster.' Her pace sped up even with the earth pulling her back. After a grueling hike through the forest, the teen stood in front of the mako reactor. Shallow pants wheezed out of her windpipe and she had to use a nearby rock for support. Psychical strength was never a strong point for her.

Jade pulled out a syringe and with practiced motion, plunged the needle deep into her arm. The mako was already beginning to take effect.

She could feel her muscles heal and her vision correct. With a fluid motion, her glasses came off; tucked into one of her many jacket pockets. Muscle enhanced by mako powered her strides as she jumped into the reactor, landing on all fours like a cat.

Glowing blue eyes scanned the run down reactor, checking for any signs of life. The coast was clear. Jade straighten up from her crouched position and shrugged off her back pack, taking out a few empty glass vials.

The pool of life energy glowed before her eyes. It was a magnificent shade of jade; illuminating the dank and draft reactor. To be honest, it was a welcome change of scenery from everyday Gongaga, even though she was here yesterday. For some reason, the glowing pit of mako relaxed her. It was her sanctuary and her main source of income. As the saying goes, kill two birds with one stone. In this case it was money and a nice, quiet place free from judgement and pressure.

Jade stood there for a while, basking in the soft light that radiated from the pool.

"It's quite nice isn't it?" Blue pupils dilated as a foreign voice rung out through the reactor. She didn't even have time to react as a sharp pain erupted from the base of her skull. Her brain was firing off neurons at a rapid pace as the brunette fell to her knees before slumping over; the upper half of her body making a splash in the florescent liquid.

Little air bubbles escaped her lips as the mako rushed into her mouth and slowly trickled into her lungs. The teen's body was screaming for air. How could she, a human enhanced with liquid mako, succumb to a single blow to her head? Whoever hit her had some sort of experience with tripped out humans, mako or otherwise.

Suddenly, a hand gripped the back of her neck and hauled the teen's body out of the glowing liquid; dangling her a good foot off the ground. Flecks of green were hacked out of her lungs as she took rapid breaths to try and replenish the amount of oxygen circulating throughout her body.

"So you're the mongrel who hacked into Shinra's databanks. And now you're stealing mako? Tsk tsk. Don't you ever listen to your parents but hey- who am I to talk?" Strained cerulean eyes saw Christmas colors dancing in her vision. Who or what was her attacker? If it could easily knock down a human tripped out on mako… no this thing can't be human. It had to be a SOLDIER; Shinra's muscle army.

The SOLDIER slung her over their shoulder like a sack of potatoes but uttered out a small groan of complaint. "Geez you're heavy. Can't a guy get a hand around here?" Jade's brain was still swarming with stars. She could feel her limp, lifeless body being handed from one SOLDIER to another. Throughout all the gibber gabber bullshit, she concluded her attacker was male- most likely.

Pale hands swung lazily from side to side with every step the behemoth who held her took. Everything was fuzzy, like static. Jade danced on the thread of consciousness and unconsciousness for a good five minutes or so. Throughout those precious minutes, the scenery changed. They were out of the reactor and in broad daylight. Blue eyes squinted and saw a pair of black leather shoes sloshing through the muddy waters and another set beside them.

She also heard someone complaining about mud, water and ruining new shoes but her brain decided to quit on her. It had too much excitement for one day and was shutting down even faster with the mako burning out of her system. The brunette let out a quiet groan before her mind went blank. The soothing noise of rotating helicopter blades lulled her to sleep.

* * *

The stench of chlorine and alcohol stung her nostrils and rudely awakened her from her slumber. Dull brown eyes slowly blinked open and scanned the room. By the look of the snow white walls and the stench of disinfectant, Jade safely concluded she was at a hospital in a major city. None of the infirmaries in Gongaga was this high tech.

She swiveled her head to gaze at the only window in the room she was in locked in. Even without her glasses she could see the sky. It was a red hue from pollution and she could stare directly at the sun without being blinded. If she did that back home, her retinas would have been fried.

The brunette slowly flexed her muscles, making sure they all worked correctly and whatever creature hit her didn't paralyze them. Nodding in satisfaction, the girl slid out from the clean white sheets and looked around the room for her spectacles. Everything looked incredibly fuzzy. Jade knew she wasn't getting anywhere like this so, with tentative steps, she walked forward.

After the third step, she found herself unable to move. Brown eyes blinked in confusion as they looked down and saw a metal chain around her right ankle. The cuff wrapped firmly around her joint and prevented her from getting three feet away from the bed.

"You've got to be kidding me." The girl said to no one in particular and yanked on the metal. It didn't budge.

"Afraid not. Those chains are reinforced with tilkal and galvorn. Not even a SOLDIER can break them." Jade swiveled her head and saw a figure leaning against the ivory doorframe. She squinted her brown eyes but the figure was still incredibly blurry. The only two things she could make out were the person had bright red hair and was wearing a black suit.

"…"

"Not much of a talker are ya?" The human pushed them self-off the frame and shoved their hands in their pockets. "Well then, I guess I'll have to do the talking for ya." The talking red mop of hair slowly walked closer to the glasses-less girl.

When the mop was only three feet away, Jade was finally able to get a good look at him. Fiery red hair pulled back into a streamline ponytail was the most prominent feature. His green eyes were second. This was the man who had knocked her out with a single blow, the one who looked like a walking talking Christmas tree.

"Oh? Like what you finally see?" The redhead smirked cockily. "Sorry but I'm not into teens."

The brunette snorted. "And I'm not into old men. What's your point?"

Brown eyes glared right back into green ones with a challenging look. The two stared down each other for what seemed like minutes, neither of them moving. It was a silent challenge, one that could not be bested through the use of words or violence.

"Reno, Jade, break it up." A new voice came into the room.

Reno was the first to break eye contact. "Tseng," He nodded disdainfully towards the newcomer but backed off on the chained female, allowing the black haired man to talk.

Jade raised an eyebrow at the newcomer. A gut feeling told her this man was not to be trifled with. He was dangerous and could make her life a living hell if he wanted to. Slowly but surely, she scanned him as well. He didn't look like he could do much physical harm.

"Jade Fair, it is nice to finally meet you. I am Tseng of the Turks." The man pulled out a chair and gestured for her to sit on the bed. Jade did so warily, her brown eyes locked onto the newcomer.

"You're here for two things. One, you stole mako from Shinra and distributed it in the form of a drug to normal humans. As you know, drug distribution in Gongaga is a lifetime sentence in prison. Not to mention, you are a minor distributing drugs to other-"

"Just tell me what I need to do to get out of here." The Fair sibling was tired of listening to the man talk. She knew he wanted something from her and had a pretty good guess on what it was. Either work for Shinra or go to jail. He probably had some form of blackmail and illegal documentations- enough to convict her for a lifetime in prison.

Tseng pulled out a stack of papers from his suit and handed it over to her. "We are offering you the position of a technology specialist Turk. You were able to breech four levels of Shinra security, a feat unheard of outside of the Turks. You'll be paid handsomely and all of your criminal charges will be erased. All you have to do is sign on the dotted lines."

There were at least ten legal document sized papers, each detailing the strict procedure of her job. She scanned through it for a few seconds before looking at Tseng. "I will need some time to look over all of this."

"Of course. Take as much time as you need." Tseng stood up and walked towards the doorway with Reno tailing behind him. The hospital door closed with a click, a sign it was locked.

"…So I really am a prisoner here." Jade sighed heavily and turned her attention to the papers in hand. The text was small, too small to be read with her blurry eyesight. Her pale hands felt around the bed for any lumps or bumps. Nothing.

It wasn't until fifteen minutes later that she had found her spectacles on the bedside table. A sigh of relief escaped her as she slid the frames on and observed the room with 'new' eyes. It was plain hospital room with the exception of the cuff attached to her leg to prevent escape.

The teen sighed once more, pinching the bridge of her nose with her index finger and thumb. This wasn't supposed to happen; she wasn't supposed to get caught. But the idea of supposing was just an ignorant man's way of living in the past. For now, she had to move forward.

Determination washed off the brunette in waves as brown eyes, hidden behind the glare of her glasses, scanned the papers like a machine.

Hours passed by. The red sun of Midgar gradually dipped below the horizon and made way for the pale moon in the night sky. The stagnant smog of mako pollution blanketed the city in a layer of pale green vapor.

Jade churned out signature after signature. The pen gradually lost its ink and a nurse had to bring in a replacement. All the dotted lines had been signed on save for one. Brown eyes scanned the fine print once more.

_By signing this, I acknowledge that I am now property of the Shinra Company. If at any time I disobey or refuse an order, the Shinra Company can dispose of me how they see fit._

Was it worth it? Was it worth throwing her whole life away just to make Zackary Fair's life a living hell?

Her signature was on the page before she finished that thought. She wanted his time in Shinra to be a living hell, even if she had to condemn her own life to see to it. He made her life in Gongaga miserable. Now it was time to return the favor.

"I see you have finally finished signing the papers." Tseng's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. The paper was snatched out of her hands in an instant, earning a couple of papers cuts and a loud hiss from the girl.

The man gave the papers a quick glance before he placed them in his suit. A slightly tanned hand extended to the chained girl. A moment of stillness passed between them before Jade finally mustered up the strength and willpower to shake the man's hand- sealing her fate. She was now the property of the Shinra Company and there was no space to back out.

"Jade Fair, I-Tseng of the Turks; welcome you to our ranks."

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**Haven't updated this in over a year. Will continue to update. Still getting back into fanfiction, well,writing it at least. So what did you guys think of the chapter? Can you tell where the writing style differentiates? **

**Storm Caleum **


	3. First Day

**Chapter 3- First Day**

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"Faster! You can't even outrun a Black Bat with that speed. Come on maggots; get your asses in gear!"

Jade regretted signing her contract.

She thought the job would be simple. Sit around in a dark room all day with only the dim glow of hundreds of computers as a light source, typing away at a state of the art keyboard with the reflection of code in her glasses. What she didn't expect was torturous labor and, Gaia forbid, exercise.

The teen was fine with the concept of exercise-when she was enhanced with mako. Without the enhancements, she was like a limp noodle; weak and about to get eaten.

"Fair! What's wrong? You look like you're about to get eaten alive!"

The teen grumbled miserably under her breath. Luckily the training instructor didn't hear it over the sound of his own voice-he liked it too much.

Turk training was different from SOLDIER training. While SOLDIER focused mainly on physical fights with swords, materia and hand to hand combat, the Turks trained with guns and other 'hidden' weapons; ones that were meant to kill without drawing attention.

"Line formation!" The entire group of Turks in training lined up in a single file, orderly line. Their backs were straight, heads held high and were ready to serve the president and give their lives for him.

No sound escaped any of the occupants in the room. It was quiet; dead quiet. Even with the short amount of time Jade had been in the program, she knew to follow a superior's orders without question. If one shows hesitation in the field, they will die.

Suddenly, the doors of the training room busted open and a familiar mop of red hair came in with a shit eating grin. The barely done up buttons, loose belt and bedhead gave Jade the sneaking suspicion he had a quickie in a supply closet somewhere.

Brown eyes narrowed and glared at the red headed Turk. She couldn't believe he was sleeping around while on the job. Did Shinra really give their Turks such free reign?

Emerald eyes scanned down the line of recruits until they landed on Jade. A flash of recognition and then nothing.

"So," The redhead stated. "This is the new batch of Turks in training?" He turned to the instructor with an unreadable expression plastered on his symmetrical face.

"No gunna lie yo, I was expecting something a bit more…" Athletic, smart, good looking; the list went on forever. "Impressive than this." Were his final choice of words.

"Well, guess that can't be helped. You 're rookies after all." Jade furrowed her brow and narrowed her eyes, practically glaring a hole through Red's face. She knew more about computers and hacking than he ever would. She just didn't know how to evade Shinra's clutches - if that was even possible

"Alright then, let's see what you can really do. You, you and you; step up." Jade watched cautiously as three of her fellow recruits stepped out of line. At a glance, it looked like they had nothing in common but Jade knew better than to judge based on appearances -Reno didn't look like the kind of guy who would knock out and kidnap a sixteen year old girl.

The red head grinned a pulled out a wad consisting of several hundred gil from the inside of his black blazer. "I've got approximately a hundred thousand gil in my hand." He had a smile on his face as his emerald hues locked onto each of the three rookies, chipping away at the wall they built around themselves. His free hand reached into his blazer and pulled out three steak knives that gleamed under the fluorescent light.

Jade wondered what other strange things he had in that blazer of his.

"Mindy Singer, age twenty seven," Reno walked up to the woman, leaving a mere foot of space between them.

"Lived a cushy life, went to university and studied to be a business woman before applying to Shinra." He casually stated and held out the knife for her to take. She took it without hesitation.

"But no matter where you applied, no company would hire you." Mindy tensed. "And no matter what you did, you couldn't find a job. You went into depression and became desperate." The green money gently fanned and caressed her cheek. She leaned into the warm embrace of the green paper like a cat rubbing up on human.

"Tell me, how much did you whore yourself out?" The money was soon moved away from Singer and to the next person in line as the red head did the same. He moved onto the next person.

"Sanford Zielinski, age forty, has a daughter on life support." Jade saw the man's eyes widen and his hands shake. A bitter frown was pressed on his face as he averted his brown eyes from the Turk's striking emerald ones.

"Sold your house to pay for her bills but it still wasn't enough; lived on the streets, visiting her every day and telling her everything was alright." The Turk waved the money under the man's nose. His nostrils flared at the scent of money- the hope that he could afford better medication for his daughter. Unconsciously he took the offered knife, his eyes glazed over with a fog of green.

Black dress shoes tapped against the hard floor, stopping in front of the third and final rookie who took the blade without question or hesitation.

"What's your name rookie?"

He hesitated. "Gerald Umber."

"Good- and what's your story?"

"I'm an assassin for hire." Jade could practically hear the widening of eyes throughout the room followed by the distinct smell of fear and worry.

Reno's smiled never faded. "Now that you've all gotten a little peak into the others' lives, the last one standing will get the hundred grand."

"Now wait a minute!" Sanford objected. His hand clenched around the hilt of the blade. Even from her place at the end of the line, the hacker could see the stress lines and creases on his face. He was having an internal battle with himself. He needed the money but killing people for it was wrong. The father had a high sense of morality.

"You can't just tell us to kill for a hun-" His head landed on the ground, blood squirted from his stump of a neck. The body fell limp to the side, occasionally twitching.

A collective sharp inhale echoed through the training room followed by the distinct sound of vomit hitting the clean, crisp tiles. The sour stench of partially digest meat wafted through the air, causing many trainees to lose their lunch.

Jade was not an exception.

She found a nice little corner to vomit into.

She'd thought she could handle this. Years of being exposed to media news, watching people die while reporters kept on talking should have made her numb death. It was the circle of life- everything had to die in the end and most monsters met their demise as lab experiments. That or being torn apart by bigger creatures and eaten by humans.

So why?

Why did the death of someone whom she barely knew affect her so much? Why was she puking out her guts while the sound of metal on metal resonated in the background? And why, for the love of Gaia, was Reno lazily counting gil while the assassin drove the blade into the back of Singer's skull?!

The second body fell the same as the first. Her eyes still twitched, moving frantically as the last bits of her brain shut down and become nothing more than a rotting meat sac.

Another putrid stink entered Jade's nostrils, making her face scrunch up in disgust. Warily, she craned her neck to look at the two dead bodies that occupied a large section of floor space and sure enough, both had identical stains on the ass and crotch; voided bowels.

Piss, vomit and blood mixed and mingled. The once pristine white tiles were covered in at least one of the three liquids. The trainees were standing in all of the above.

Jade's stomach lurched and once again, the hacker found herself braced against the corner of a wall while her insides became her outsides.

The doors of the training room slid open and men in suits calmly walked in as if the floor wasn't covered in piss, the trainees weren't vomiting their insides out and there weren't two fresh corpses on the floor.

They simply came in with a tranquilizer gun and shot the assassin, taking him away to who knows where without questions, comments or concerns.

After a few more seconds of dry heaving, coughing and generally feeling like shit, the grating sound of the red head's voice filled her ears. The brunette strained her eyes to focus in his general direction. The mop of red hair walked with a small spring in his step even through all the piss, blood and vomit. He didn't seem to give a damn about the entire thing. Rather, he found it amusing.

The man walked over to each remaining recruit, giving those ten grand each and a demeaning pat on the head-even the ones who were hunched over and dry heaving like Jade was.

When he finally got to her little corner, he grasped her arm that stabilized her against the wall and placed the last ten grand into her palm. As soon as the gil touched her hand, she had a death grip on it, refusing to let go. The young trainee needed a touch of reality to cling onto and money was the only real thing she could think of at the moment while a million and three thoughts raced through her head.

Reno only smirked, the shit eating grin never leaving his face. He leaned close to her, his warm breath ghosting over the shell of her ear, sending gooseflesh to ripple on her skin like water.

"I let you live today Jade. Don't forget it." He let go of her arm, dropping her into the cesspool of human bodily fluids and walked towards the open doors of the training room.

"Oh and before I forget," Red hair whipped around like fire in the wind. "Don't bother trying to tell the media or the rest of Shinra what just occurred here or you might end up like those two." The corpses didn't move.

"After all, dead men speak no words." Were the last words he spoke before he strode out of the room to do who knows what, the grin and the skip in his step never leaving as he walked down the hallway, trailing a path of blood and bile in the shape of shoeprints.

The brownish liquid was still warm when it soaked into her pants. Her eyes were wide as saucers. Her body shook with fear. The wad of cash was still tightly clenched in her hand, her knuckles turning white from the strain.

At that moment, Jade realized something. Shinra could hide any and all evidence of what they had done. They swept everything under the rug and had Turks take care of it without question.

Shinra was a den of monsters and she agreed to become one.

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**Short chapter. Been a while since I've posted. Story isn't dead, I'm just very slow. **

**This story isn't meant to be one of sunshine and rainbows. It's pretty much one about corruption, money, revenge and all that good stuff. Think modern Shakesphere fanfiction of Crisis core and all the messed up stuff in his works (crap, I'm comparing my work to Shakesphere 0.0 That's not good). Cheers!**

**-Storm Caleum**


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